Indians beat Derbyshire but give England hope for first Test

Action at the County Ground in Derby on Thursday, where the Indians beat Derbyshire by five wickets. Photograph: Ed Sykes/Action Images

England would seem to have a glorious opportunity to catch India cold in the first Test at Trent Bridge next week after the Indians completed their desultory build-up here on a stultifying day.

In two games in the east Midlands which have been made meaningless by the Indians’ insistence on fielding all 18 members of their tour party, they have taken 11 wickets for 831 in 197 overs.

Each of the likely Test top seven has made a reasonable score, with the opener Murali Vijay the last to do so asthey completed an underwhelming victory that would be flattered by the description underwhelming as each team batted for 45 overs on the third and last day.

Vijay was able to retire out for 41 from 53 balls before the Indians passed the 142 runs needed to win. But Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad would hope to provide a more searching examination than that offered by Ben Cotton and Matt Higginbottom, a new-ball pair with only six first-class appearances between them.

Still, that is the way India’s coach Duncan Fletcher tended to approach tour fixtures in his years in charge of England, and the proof will come in the pudding at Nottingham. The squad will relocate to the other end of Brian Clough Way on Friday to finalise preparations for their first Test since Wellington and a 1-0 series defeat against New Zealand in February.

None of the Indians have played a first-class match since, and the team have not won an away Test for more than three years, with four draws and 10 defeats, including the 4-0 drubbing inflicted by England in the summer of 2011.

Predicting the team for Trent Bridge will not be easy, as nobody has been made available to talk to the media since Fletcher and MS Dhoni conducted a press conference before the tour opener in Leicester last week. But Mohammed Shami, who had not bowled in the first innings here amid whispers of a calf strain, showed no discomfort in completing 11 overs, and Ishant Sharma delivered a tidier spell than he had managed on Tuesday, with only two no-balls.

It would seem a decent punt that the XI who took the field for Derbyshire’s second innings might be Fletcher’s preferred Test selection, which would mean no place for Ravichandran Ashwin with Ravindra Jadeja playing as the sole spinner, and a debut for the seam-bowling all-rounder Stuart Binny.

Sign up for the Guardian Today

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.